BIOGRAPHY - Senator Henry Judson Yancey and Capt. Alfred yancey

Hon. Henry Judson Yancey, former State Senator and for many years one of the best known and most influential figures in the political life of Cooper County, was born near the place on which he is now living, a mile south of Pisgah, in North Moniteau township, in 1853, son of Capt. Alfred and Jane Ann (Bowles) Yancey, both members of pioneer families. Mrs. Bowles, grandmother of Senator Yancey, was a charter member of the Pisgah Baptist Church, and her brother, the Rev. John Longan, will always be held in pleasant memory hereabouts as the pioneer Baptist minister of this region. Almost from the days of his boyhood, the Rev. John Longan was a devoted missionary throughout this country, traveling horseback from settlement to settlement, preaching the gospel and neither expecting nor receiving compensation. It is a matter of early note that the only material compensation this devoted missioner ever received was on one occasion when his horse died and the members of his scattered congregations bought him another horse. But his memory is still green heareabout and when Pisgah Church celebrates its centenary, his long and faithful labor of love will be brought to mind.

Capt. Alfred Yancey, father of Senator Yancey, was born in Kentucky in the year 1820 and was but six years of age when he came with his parents to Missouri in 1826, the family first settling in Howard County and later came to Cooper County, where the Yanceys have ever since been prominently represented. Captain Yancey married here and settled on the farm just south of Pisgah, near where his son, the Senator, is now living. Preceding the outbreak of the Civil War, he was commissioned Captain of the local company of State Militia and rendered valuable service to the Union cause. After the war he settled down to his farming and became a substantial farmer and landowner. Captain Yancey died in 1893 and his widow died in 1894. Both are buried in the Sappington Cemetery at Clarksburg. They were the parents of four children, of whom Senator Yancey is now the only survivor, the others having been Mary Belle, who married George T. Clark, of Clarksburg; Mrs. Bettie Patrick and Jesse Layton Yancey.

Henry Judson Yancey received his schooling in the Yancey district and has given his chief attention to farming. When he was a boy of 17, he went to western Texas, where his uncle, Joseph Bowles, was engaged in cattle ranching, and for some time was engaged as a "cowboy," assisting his uncle in driving cattle through the then Indian country to Abilene, Kansas. Though he enjoyed the wild, free life of the great plains, he returned from Abilene, quite content to give his whole time thereafter to the best interests of his home county. From the days of his young manhood, Senator Yancey has given his earnest and thoughtful attention to civic affairs and has for years been reckoned as one of the strong personal factors in the political life of this section, a leader in the ranks of the Democratic party, and in 1914 was elected to represent this senatorial district in the 48th and 49th General Assemblies. During this period of service in the Senate, Senator Yancey rendered conspicuous service not only to his own district but to the State at large and had place on several of the important committees of the Senate; his most notable act perhaps being that of introducing and pushing through through the Senate to enactment the bill abolishing capital punishment in the State of Missouri.

Nov. 28, 1876, he was united in marriage to Isabel McNeal, who was born in Ohio, and to this union four children have been born: Jennie Alberta, died at the age of 23 years, and is buried at New Zion churchyard; Alfred Jesse, who is now connected with the State Grain Inspection Department, with headquarters at Kansas City ; Mary Belle, wife of Arthur Elliott, North Moniteau township, and Anna E., who is at home with her parents. Senator and Mrs. Yancey have 14 grandchildren, the Elliotts having eight children, James Earl, Louis Judson, Vincel Weight, Mervin Lee, Anna May, Leta Belle, Luther Brant and Edward Raymond, while A. J. Yancey and his wife have six children, William Henry, Jesse Poindexter, Ada, Charles Brant, Woodrow Wilson, and Mary Frances. The Senator and his wife are members of the Pisgah Baptist Church and he is a member of the Mystic Workers of the World at Pisgah.

Mrs. Yancey's father, Archibald McNeal, also was a soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War and died in service. He was a native of Ohio, as was his wife, who before her marriage was Mary Elizabeth Lippy. They were among the early residents of Moniteau township, and there Mrs. McNeal spent her last days. She died on May 5, 1887, and is buried in New Zion churchyard. Mrs. Yancey has a brother, George McNeal on Montrose, Missouri.